Page 60 of Beast

My father simply shakes his head and sits down behind hisdesk. “Let’s talk about something more pleasant. We’ll deal with your cousins’situation when the time comes. Now, I know you need your bonding time, but thesunscreen project is at a critical state. I want you to get to work. Thechemists have the formula down, and we’ll be ready for testing soon.”

I know I should be excited. This is the very reason I gotmarried. I changed my entire life to stay on this one project. Now all I canthink of is how to keep my cousins alive.

“Dante?” My father leans forward. “Are you all right?”

No. I’m not all right. I’m changed, and I’m not sure I likeit. This is my home, and somehow I feel out of place. It’ll be all right. Iwent through a lot. I need time and space to forget what happened in the woods.It’s just a little post-traumatic stress disorder.

I will be fine. I will get back to normal.

I want to see Kaja.

“I’m good,” I say, forcing a smile on my face. “A bit tired,though.”

Yeah, almost dying will do that.

Dad gets back up and walks around the desk. He envelopes mein a bear hug. Love for my father rushes over me. I hug him back. Despite ourdifferences, I love the old man.

“I was wrong to say what I did to you, Dante. You’re my boy,and I would never kick you out,” my father says, emotion choking him. “You’llalways be my boy.”

Now the emotion that flows over me turns bittersweet as Irealize I’m leaving something behind. I might live in this mansion forever, butI’m changed, and my childhood is irrevocably over. I was Donald Dellacourt’sboy for thirty years.

But now I’m Kaja’s husband.

“I love you, too, Dad.”

ChapterTwenty-Two

Kaja

I come awake slowly, my consciousness opening inlayers. I slept so deeply that no dreams jarred me. Just sweet sleep. Each timeI awakened, my eyes would open and I would see Dante’s face hovering over me,protecting me, and I knew I could sink back into sleep.

This time, however, he is not there. I open my eyes, andDante is not holding me or standing watch.

I sit up in bed, feeling stronger, but there is still adelicious weakness to my system. I saved him. Dante is alive because my bloodsustained him.

All of my life, I allowed things to happen because I knew noother way. Until I was kicked out of the pack, I did not understand that I canchange things. I saved Dante. I am strong.

I push back at the blankets that cover me. They are rich andsoft, made of some material I never felt before. I touch the gown covering mybody. I vaguely remember Dante slipping it over my head and calling me aprincess as he tucked me in.

Where has he gone?

I look around the room, memories surfacing. Dante’s room. Itseems larger than my pack’s long house. Dante’s memories of this room arestrong. I see it when he feeds. I can see it as it was when he was a child. Heloved hovercars and bikes. He followed racing circuits, and was pastdisappointed when his father wouldn’t let him enter something called the BMXSky Racers. I find the desk where he sat and worked on homework when absolutelyforced to. He prefers to play with his tablet. It still sits on the desk.

I touch it and am startled when a woman pops up. She issmall but lifelike. How does she fit inside the thin tablet? Why is shehalf-naked? If I learned one thing about Dante’s people, it is that they preferto be fully clothed. Not this woman.

“Hello, Master. What can I search for tonight? I’ve foundsome amateur pornography guaranteed to shock and arouse you.”

I take a step back. “I do not think I wish to be shocked.”

I am already shocked by the small woman who hovers above thetablet wearing what appears to be strips of leather that do not cover herincredibly large breasts. And the minute I speak, the woman changes, morphinginto a much older woman in a business suit.

“Apologies, ma’am. I’ll go into mom mode. Now, would youlike a rundown of stock quotes?”

I turn away, a bit frightened by the magic that is here onDante’s plane. There must be a doorway out. I find double doors with filmycurtains covering them. I stride over and throw them open and gasp. I am nolonger in a building, but outside and so close to the sky. Lights twinkle allaround me, like fireflies in odd colors. Yellows, pinks, blues, and purpleslight up the sky in the distance.

I hold on to the doorframe. There is floor beneath me, but Ican tell I am up high. Very high.

“Kaja, you’re awake.”